The Power of Competitive Focus

The Power of Competitive Focus - Presentation Transcript
The power of competitive focus
Dr. Russell James III
Texas Tech University
A special case: Competitive focus
Decisions dominated by the short-term, impulsive self tend to reduce future happiness
Excessive future discounting
Finding negative addictions
Avoiding positive addictions
But, for some, decision training is also important because of the potential for competitive mastery resulting from focus.
Focus in the dual-self model
The rider can understand the cumulative benefits of focus over many years.
Long-term
Patient
Planner
Impartial spectator
Deliberative
Cold state
The elephant gets bored with repetition and wants to move on to the next new experience.
Short-term
Impulsive
Doer
Passions
Affective/Visceral
Hot state
In standard consumption economics, focusing is often bad
Variety is important because diminishing marginal utility changes preferences. When enjoyment drops, we should switch to another choice.
In competition, the cumulative effect of focus may be good…
Diminishing marginal utility
Differential outcome
Point where Joey Chestnut ties Kobayashi for the 2007 championship
Focus, enjoyment, and outcomes
Focused practice may result in increased utility due to
Improved activity experience due to accumulated skill (consumption capital)
Improved activity outcome due to cumulative experience (human production capital)
Practice makes the game more fun to play because I know what I am doing.
Practice makes it more likely that I will win and I like winning.
How important is focus when trying to achieve mastery in some area?
Focus and differential outcomes
Does musical talent exist?
Does athletic talent exist?
Obviously, Yes, Right?
A contrary argument
A series of findings suggest that, assuming basic dexterity or height, talent is simply the result of accumulated hours of focused practice with appropriate feedback.
So, seriously…
Does musical talent exist?
Does athletic talent exist?
Talent on the violin
Performance track university violin students judged “good” by professors
Teacher track violin students
Professional performers
Performance track university violin students judged “best” by professors
Talent on the violin
Best/Good: University violin students judged the best talent or good talent
Teachers: Teacher-track violin students (not performers)
Professionals: Professional violinists
Note early divergence
Can you find the talented violinists with fewer hours of practice?
Ericsson (U. Colorado), Krampe, Tesche-Romer (Max Plank Institute - Berlin), 1993, The role of deliberate practice in the acquisition of expert performance, Psychological Review, 100, p. 379
Adult piano players with 5-20+ years of experience
Expert Level Ability
v.
Amateur Level Ability
Talent on the piano
A retrospective study of expert-level and amateur-level adult piano players with 5-20+ years of practice.
Note early divergence
Does “talent” seem to be related to hours of practice?
Ericsson (U. Colorado), Krampe, Tesche-Romer (Max Plank Institute - Berlin), 1993, The role of deliberate practice in the acquisition of expert performance, Psychological Review, 100, p. 385
Innate differences of piano experts?
There were no differences in general cognitive-motor skills.
But, there were differences in specific abilities including single-hand movements, mirror-image movements in both hands, and different movements in opposite hands.
Innate differences of piano experts?
Were these specific hand skills
An example of innate talent?
Simply a reflection of accumulated hours of practice?
Core physical ability differences reflect accumulated practice
Experts are dark circles. Amateurs are empty circles.
Ericsson (U. Colorado), Krampe, Tesche-Romer (Max Plank Institute - Berlin), 1993, The role of deliberate practice in the acquisition of expert performance, Psychological Review, 100, p. 385
Study of Belgian soccer players.
All about 25 years old.
All playing since they were about 5.
Now some play in
local competitions (“provincial”),
some in national competitions,
some in international competitions.
Any difference?
Expertise in soccer
3 groups, all playing in Belgian soccer leagues.
All about 25 years old.
All started playing at about age 5
Helsen, et al. (2000), The roles of talent, physical precocity, and practice in the development of soccer expertise, Journal of Sports Science, 18, 727-736
A study of soccer players in the UK age 9-18.
Differences between national-level players and local-level players in playing OTHER SPORTS.
A study of soccer players in the UK age 9-18.
As compared with local-level youth players, did national-level youth players
A) Accumulate more hours in other sports
B) Accumulate fewer hours in other sports
C) Accumulate the same number of hours in other sports
Focus v. variety: Accumulated hours playing other sports
A study of soccer players in the UK age 9-18.
Nationally competitive Local players
Ward, et al (2007) The road to excellence: deliberate practice and the development of expertise. High Ability Studies, 18, 119-153.
Accumulated hours of playing or practicing soccer matters.
Does the type of playing or practicing matter?
3 soccer activities: Individual practice, team practice, playful activities
Did national-level youth players
Get more hours in all three activities
Get more hours in practice but fewer hours in playful activities
Get more hours only in playful activities
Get more hours in team practice and playful activities, but not in individual practice
Get more hours in individual practice and playful activities, but not in team practice
Deliberate practice v. playing around in soccer-related hours accumulated
Nationally competitive Local players
A study of soccer players in the UK age 9-18.
Ward, et al (2007) The road to excellence: deliberate practice and the development of expertise. High Ability Studies, 18, 119-153.
Variety/playing around v. Focus/deliberate practice
Long-term
Patient
Planner
Impartial spectator
Deliberative
Cold state
The rider can understand the cumulative benefits of deliberate focused practice over many years.
The elephant likes variety, but must be forced into focused repetition.
The elephant likes to play around, but is not fond of deliberate practice.
Short-term
Impulsive
Doer
Passions
Affective/Visceral
Hot state
The importance of feedback
“In the absence of adequate feedback, efficient learning is impossible and improvement only minimal even for highly motivated subjects. Hence mere repetition of an activity will not automatically lead to improvement...”
Practice ≠ PerfectPerfect Practice = Perfect
Ready for the Tour de France yet?
Ericsson (U. Colorado), Krampe, Tesche-Romer (Max Plank Institute - Berlin), 1993, The role of deliberate practice in the acquisition of expert performance, Psychological Review, 100, p. 367
Continued improvement requires experience + expert feedback
“The key challenge for aspiring expert performers is to avoid the arrested development associated with automaticity and …. to support continued learning and improvement, as shown in the upper arm of [the] Figure.”
Ericsson, K. A. (Florida State U.), 2004, Deliberate practice and the acquisition and maintenance of expert performance in medicine and related disciplines. Academic Medicine, 79, S70-S81
Focus v. variety in medical skills
Doctors listened to recordings of heart sounds and murmurs of healthy and sick patients to diagnose the difference. Who was most accurate: new physicians completing residency (Residents), general practitioner physicians (GP), or cardiologists (Specialists)?
Specialists 1st, GPs 2nd, Residents 3rd
Specialists 1st, Residents 2nd, GPs 3rd
GPs 1st, Specialists 2nd, Residents 3rd
Residents 1st, Specialists 2nd, GPs 3rd
Residents 1st, GPs 2nd, Specialists 3rd.
Butterworth, J. (NYU), Reppert, E. (NYU), 1960, Auscultatory acumen in the general medical population. Journal of the American Medical Association, 174, 32–34. Graph from Ericsson, K. A. (Florida State U.), 2004, Deliberate practice and the acquisition and maintenance of expert performance in medicine and related disciplines. Academic Medicine, 79, S70-S81
Focus v. variety in medical skills
Butterworth, J. (NYU), Reppert, E. (NYU), 1960, Auscultatory acumen in the general medical population. Journal of the American Medical Association, 174, 32–34. Graph from Ericsson, K. A. (Florida State U.), 2004, Deliberate practice and the acquisition and maintenance of expert performance in medicine and related disciplines. Academic Medicine, 79, S70-S81
A study of 108 college football players from 5 teams in the southeast.
Question: What factors were different between starters and other team members?
Factors tested: Starters v. other players
Height in inches, weight in pounds, back squat maximum, bench press maximum, and forty yard dash.
Age, small high school (3A or below), state of competition, mother’s education level, father’s education level, parental presence while living at home, high school GPA, and SAT total.
28 psychological questions grouped into seven subscales
*stepwise discriminant analysis (compares otherwise similar players)
What do you think? (Starters v. other players)
3 factors were significant: age, one psychological subscale, and…
Height in inches
weight in pounds
back squat maximum
bench press maximum
forty yard dash
small high school (3A or below)
state of competition
mother’s education level
father’s education level
parental presence while living at home
high school GPA
SAT total
*stepwise discriminant analysis (compares otherwise similar players)
A study of college football players
Significant differences in starters: age, one psychological subscale and…
not being from a small high school (3A or below).
“While smaller schools may be playing both sides of the ball, or “Ironman Football,” larger school athletes may be able to hone their abilities at one position… A large school athlete may spend more time with coaches… This increases the number of focused, directed practice hours an individual obtains in a given season.”
Spieler, Czech, Joyner, Munkasy , Gentner & Long, 2007, Predicting Athletic Success: Factors Contributing to the Success of NCAA Division I AA Collegiate Football Players. Athletic insight: The online journal of sport psychology, 9(2)
Does “elephant” control predict college football starting status?
The significant psychological subscale was:
Long-term
Patient
Planner
Impartial spectator
Deliberative
Cold state
I maintain emotional control no matter how things are going for me.
When things are going badly, I tell myself to keep calm, and this works for me.
When I feel myself getting too tense, I can quickly relax my body and calm myself.
I remain positive and enthusiastic during competition, no matter how badly things are going.
Short-term
Impulsive
Doer
Passions
Affective/Visceral
Hot state
Examples of hours accumulation
Who said that after he became a professional football player, “The first 10 years, my wife and I didn’t take a vacation”?
Examples of hours accumulation
Career Records
All-purpose yards (23,546)
Touchdowns (208)
Receptions (1,549)
Playoff Records
Yards receiving (2,245)
Touchdowns (22)
Receptions (151)
SuperBowl Records
All-purpose yards (604)
Touchdowns (8)
Yards receiving in a single game (215)
Jerry Rice
Examples of hours accumulation
Sinclair Lewis – First American to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature
Booked to give a lecture at Columbia University on writing. He started by asking, “How many of you here are really serious about being writers?”
Most of the audience raised their hands, then…
Examples of hours accumulation
Lewis said, “Well, why the hell aren’t you all home writing?”
And he sat down.
Talent v. 10,000 hours
Research suggests that mastery requires about 10 years or 10,000 hours of practice with appropriate feedback in music, mathematics, chess, composing, tennis, swimming, running, soccer, and for writers, poets, scientists, etc.
Ericsson (U. Colorado), Krampe, Tesche-Romer (Max Plank Institute, Berlin), 1993, The role of deliberate practice in the acquisition of expert performance, Psychological Review, 100, p. 363-406
What about young phenoms and child prodigies?
Bobby Fischer: International Chess Grand Master at 15
Mozart: Child prodigy
The Beatles
Bryce Harper:
16 yr. old baseball phenom
Longest distance home run ever hit at Tropicana Field
570 ft home run during a high school game at age 15
Bobby Fischer
International chess grand master at 15.
Started playing at age 6
At 7, began weekly tutoring by president of Brooklyn chess club
At 12, joined one of the strongest chess clubs in the world and met several times a week with chess master Jack Collins with access to his library of chess books.
Result: Mastery in 9 years instead of 10 (probably resulting from intensity and hours of training).
Bryce Harper
16 yr. old baseball phenom
570 ft home run during a high school game at age 15
Longest distance home run ever hit at Tropicana Field
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/e60/news/story?id=4388790
Start-3:16
Bryce Harper 1.wmv
Bryce Harper and hours accumulation
“Bryce Harper was playing T-ball at age three against six-year-olds,… He has played between 80 and 130 baseball games a year each year for the past seven years…
Bryce Harper is the product of a travel baseball industry that mushroomed, just as he himself was growing up, into big business. There seems no end to the tournaments, all-star games, showcases, wood-bat leagues, USA Baseball youth teams, "scout teams" sponsored by major league clubs.”
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/e60/news/story?id=4388790
3:16-4:29
Bryce Harper 2.wmv
-Quote from issue pictured at right
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
"By the standards of mature composers, Mozart's early works were not that outstanding…. Of those concertos that only contain music original to Mozart, the earliest that is now regarded as a masterwork (No. 9, K 271) was not composed until he was 21. By that time Mozart had already been composing concertos for ten years."
Michael Howe
Genius Explained
The Beatles
1960 went to Hamburg, Germany to play in strip clubs 8 hours a night, 7 days a week.
The Hamburg trips yielded 270 nights of performing at 8 hours/night in only 1.5 years.
By 1964 when the Beatles came to the US, they had played at least 1,200 gigs (≈8,400 hours).
“They were no good onstage when they went there and they were very good when they came back... It was the making of them.” From Shout! The Beatles in Their Generation (1981) by P. Norman.
Magic?
Even in mythic tales of seemingly overwhelming, undeniable talent, the 10-year or 10,000 hour guidelines still seems to apply.
Summary: The power of intentional focus v. the dissipation of variety
The power to avoid negative addictions
The power to pursue positive addictions
The power to become the best
Slides by:
Russell James III, J.D., Ph.D., CFP®
Associate Professor
Division of Personal Financial Planning
Texas Tech University
russell.james@ttu.edu
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The outline for this behavioral economics series is at
http://www.slideshare.net/rnja8c/outline-for-behavioral-economics-course...